SAN FRANCISCO — Johan Santana was awakening in Spain last month when he learned he no longer stood alone in Mets history.
Removing the “silent” mode from his phone, messages came at Santana fast and furious, some with clips of the previous night’s game at Citi Field.
“All of a sudden I see highlights, highlights, what’s going on here?” Santana said Tuesday in a phone conversation.
Those highlights showed five Mets pitchers combining on a no-hitter against the Phillies. Tylor Megill, Drew Smith, Joely Rodriguez, Seth Lugo and Edwin Diaz completed a feat that had been accomplished only once in team history, almost a decade earlier by Santana.
As Santana prepares for a return to Citi Field next week, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his June 1, 2012, no-hitter against the Cardinals, he’s ready to tip his cap to the new Mets who have joined him in franchise lore.
Santana recalled saying on a Zoom call in March to promote the anniversary celebration that he thought the Mets would soon have another no-hitter.
“I thought [Jacob] deGrom or [Max] Scherzer would do it,” Santana said. “I thought if someone could, it was deGrom, but to have it as combined … it’s not easy to do.
“It’s tough to achieve something like that. It’s well-deserved — that means something went right, but looking into the future, that might be a thing, something you see more often. Baseball has changed and that is the way it goes and that is the way they approach the game now, so I won’t be surprised if you see more combined no-hitters in the future.”
The Mets will celebrate Santana’s no-hitter on Tuesday instead of the actual June 1 anniversary because of logistics. Rather than holding the ceremony before a getaway day game that fewer fans are likely to attend, the Mets opted for Tuesday night.
Santana personally invited Terry Collins to the event because of the reverence he holds for the former Mets manager. Collins faced the gut-wrenching decision of whether to let Santana pursue the no-hitter only two months into his return from shoulder surgery. Santana threw 134 pitches in completing the gem, but his time with the Mets was short thereafter; he incurred further shoulder problems that ended his career.
“Terry is a friend, and going back in time when everything happened he thought it was all his fault, because of my shoulder, but it’s not,” Santana said. “This is baseball and that is how baseball is and how sports are: You are going to have surgeries, you are going to get injuries and to have Terry, it’s always good, it’s great because he is part of what we did and he’s a great person. Not just a manager, but a person. Not just to me but the whole team and I really appreciate that.”
Santana said he’s got no regrets about the night.
“I had an opportunity to do something very special and to achieve something that I had never done before,” he said. “Up to that point it was not done for the team, so I had an opportunity to do something very special and I don’t regret anything I did on the field. I just happened to have an opportunity to do something special and we went for it.”
The former pitcher hasn’t returned to Citi Field since his last pitching appearance for the team and said he would like to remain involved in the Mets family. Santana is also scheduled to appear at Old-Timers’ Day on Aug. 27.
“To be recognized now after so many years, it’s very special,” Santana said. “It will be my first time in New York after so many years. I never had a chance to go back. Now I have an opportunity to go back and it means a lot.”
